There may not be deer roaming through South Burnaby any longer but that doesn't mean you won't find an antler there.
Shed, an installation art piece by Jacqueline Metz and Nancy Chew, will be part of the Beresford art walk planned for Metrotown.
"We often think about landscape and what was there before," Metz said in a phone interview with the NOW. "So we were thinking about the landscape of Burnaby and what the natural environment was, and we went through photos in the archives, and we came across photos of deer."
The duo has been creating together since 1997. The artists decided to go with a large-scale cast aluminum antler for the Beresford piece.
"We're kind of fascinated by the shape of antlers - they're elegant, and they're elemental - so we chose to use that," she said. "It's as though a giant deer has passed by and there's this fallen antler from a mythical deer."
The size of the piece will make it a place marker in the corner plaza, she added.
"It's something you can stand sheltered within or pass through," Metz said.
The artists, who have pieces throughout Canada and the U.S., like to work on idea-driven pieces, she added.
"We really like the conceptual aspect of art," she said, adding the material aspects, such as light, texture and form, also figure into their work.
"We're also very interested in the public realm, and how you place something in an urban environment, and how people react and how people move through a site," Metz said.
Shed is slated to be installed in 2015, according to Metz.
The artists introduced the concept for the piece at the recent groundbreaking for the Silver development at the corner of Beresford Street and Silver Avenue.
The excavation for Silver is 90 per cent complete, according to Lesley Bidlake, senior marketing manager at Intracorp Projects, and concrete is being poured for the footings and crane base.
"Construction's coming along very well at Silver," she said.
Five retail spaces have also been purchased on the site, though Bidlake could not confirm who the tenants would be at this point.
"We're very happy with our progress on that front," she said.
The 38-storey development is expected to be completed in early 2015.
jfuller-evans@ burnabynow.com
